


Stay Much Longer

by slightlyjillian



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F, F/M, Grief, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-28
Updated: 2010-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-09 18:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/90371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlyjillian/pseuds/slightlyjillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-EW. Seeing the happiness of others reminds Sally of what she's lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay Much Longer

**Author's Note:**

> Some character relationships in this are influenced by and explained in my post-EW fanfic [Tourniquet](http://archiveofourown.org/works/55448); however, the stories themselves are not connected.

"That's not a merry-go-round, Adelphi." Sally lifted the small child back from the baggage carousel. She had her carry-on snug against her leg. Other passengers, some she recognized but more that she didn't, seemed to crowd in close. Rationally, she knew the two of them weren't in danger. Sally put on a smile to comfort the child in her arms.

"Here you are." Nichol appeared as if he'd dropped down from the lights. Thus far he'd managed to avoid almost every worrisome situation, making her suspect his illustrious career as a soldier. "Miss me?"

In Sally's arms the child squirmed, bending nearly in half to reach her uncle. Fortunately, Nichol managed to accept the transfer of soft limbs and tangled fabric before Sally lost her hold.

"Thanks again, Sal." His tone was too kind for the way his niece had nearly pushed all her fingers into his mouth and hair.

Shaking her head, Sally crossed her arms. Her fingers rubbing along the snaps and folds of the uniform sleeve. "I told you to stop saying that."

***

"So you're the one he hoodwinked into our scheme?" Hilde held the door open for Sally but the dark-haired woman's attention actively fixed toward the cab. Nichol was still trying to sort out a tip for the driver. "If I'd known, Sally, I would have made him ask Dorothy regardless of..."

"No, I'm fine." Sally edged her way inside. She saw a table of waiting glasses and a pitcher of what proved to be bitter lemonade, but she drank it without hesitation.

"Mamma!" The child shrieked running the last distance and tripping up the stairs to much cooing and laughing from her relatives. The girl stopped her tears to declare, "Not funny."

Sally raised her brow at the first sensible thing she'd heard the child utter during the entire journey.

"Adelphi."

At the sound of her father's voice, the girl quieted herself and sat where she had stood. Nichol had barely stepped inside the door and Sally watched as an insect buzzed inside. Otherwise, everyone waited to see what Heero would say next.

After a brief three years consulting with the Preventers, Heero Yuy had given up the life of a soldier. But not before the newly formed government convinced him to testify in court against some of the remaining leadership of the fragmented Operation M organization. Heero was in the process of using his own methods to make his family disappear so no military group or legal company could interfere with them again.

Which was why Hilde's half-brother, Nichol, and his sometimes girlfriend were supposed to keep Adelphi while her parents put the complex plan in place. Of course, the sometimes girlfriend decided not-to-be just in time for Nichol to transport Adelphi into space.

Heero stepped over to his daughter, picked her up and carried her out of the room. The mood broken, Sally poured another glass of lemonade.

Nichol chuckled quietly and the door finally closed behind him. "Did he just go to have a private cry or something?"

Hilde glared, "You might share blood with me, but don't make me choose between you."

"I thought you already had," Nichol said, heedlessly until he saw Hilde's expression didn't waver.

Suddenly, the lemonade seemed appealing to the dark-haired man. He drank with a swift bobbing of his throat. His eyes met Sally's and he asked with wet lips, "I know you felt an obligation..."

"Hilde, please tell your brother to stop..." Sally narrowed her eyes, which only made her notice the unshed tears.

Hilde didn't comply. She didn't say anything.

Adelphi ran back into the room making indecipherable noises of such pitch she might have broken glass with practice. The lace ribbon that had been in her hair fell loose to drape over her ears. She rushed up to Sally and pointed at the band aid taped across her nose. "Daddy fixed it!"

Heero might have had a flush across his cheeks as he returned. He was unable to make eye contact with anyone for several minutes.

***

Sometimes love revealed itself to Sally in the most unnecessary things. Such as the evening Une had showed up at Sally's apartment holding a small pack of unused hotel matches. "I just remembered that I owed you one," she had said. Then in the lingering quiet, she had continued. "Of course, if these aren't sufficient, perhaps you would agree to a dinner out." Her smile increased as the mood between them had become understood. "Dinner in?"

***

"I can't stay much longer." Sally told Nichol when Heero and Hilde left to show Adelphi her temporary bedroom. They sat at the table, soiled glasses and a half empty pitcher of warming lemonade between them.

A few thoughts crossed Nichol's face before he said, "Of course, I'll arrange for a different shuttle."

"I hear you weren't always this flexible," Sally observed.

He leaned back and took a long look out the window. His eyes slid sideways to gauge her reaction. He said, "I hear you weren't always so melancholy." Then he turned back. "There. That smile it's not right, Sal. It's not you."

"Last I checked, this is me." Sally rested her hands palms up against the table.

He grunted in disagreement and pushed his index finger toward her. "She wouldn't want you like this. And you know that I knew her as well as anyone did... there at the end."

Sally wiped at her eyes, not ashamed at her tears. Never that, but still troubled at how easily they dropped along her cheeks.

"What is it, Sally? Do you need someone to take down? Heero made sure those guys were put away for good. Forever. But I don't think you'll find your answers in that..."

She swallowed, her mouth overly wet. "It's not that, I don't even care why she's gone. It's just that she left me so easily. As if it didn't matter to her that I'd be alone."

Nichol's face made an expression Sally had never seen before. She laughed, almost in relief.

"Does this make any sense to you?" Sally confided, for the first time. "Those last minutes we had together. She was so brave, even with her gut all torn inside out like it was. Everything she said was either _I'm ready_ or _Keep an eye on Nichol would you?_"

Nichol went cross-eyed briefly as his cheeks turned flame-red. "I had no idea..."

"Yeah, she was glad she'd already moved you into place to take over the job." Sally pushed loose hair back from her forehead. Another tear slipped down her raw face. "I was angry for a while. Stupid, I know. That she'd spend her last breaths talking about work and about you..."

"Sally, she loved _you_." His face became, impossibly, more red with his hushed outburst.

"I can't stay," Sally returned to her original thought. She needed to get to someplace that wasn't a happy family reunion. A place with a future, as much as she was glad for _them_, she could never be part of.

"Consider it done," Nichol tilted his head thoughtfully. Everyone he loved, with the exception of one inconsistent Dorothy Catalonia, was in this place. "I have an idea."

"You don't have to leave yet," Sally frowned. When Heero made a plan to take his family into deep cover, it didn't include Nichol. At least not with any regularity.

Nichol repeated with more determination. "I have an idea."

***

She stood underneath an umbrella watching the redundant cascading of the large fountain. The thunder stayed in the distance, but made the atmosphere feel thick with anticipation. Something more might happen.

Because of the weather, Sally was alone until the second woman appeared.

"A long time ago I told you that I was Heero Yuy's girlfriend." Relena tilted her umbrella back enough so that Sally could better see her face.

"The disobedient daughter." Sally did remember. "Shouldn't you have some sort of escort?" Sally was unable to find any guards in the shadows. Relena was unaccompanied.

"Well, that's what I was going to talk to you about." Relena hadn't changed much. To a certain extent she still looked a soft-cheeked seventeen. But her dark blue eyes betrayed a thoughtfulness.

"I don't understand," Sally admitted. The rain, which had until that point kept a steady drumming against the material of her umbrella, lessened.

"Well, the way that Dorothy explained the set-up to me..." Relena smiled quickly and the expression lit her face from all shadows. "Was this: _'The impossible oaf thought it too much of a coincidence we both knew unhappy women.'_"

Sally furrowed her brow, but amused. "How? I let myself get drenched to satisfy his attempt at matchmaking? How did he think..."

"While I'm not going to argue with some of the less popular assessments of Derek Nichol's executive decisions, Une knew who she was picking. No. Who she was _grooming_ to take over for her some day. He's typically on mark where the Preventers are concerned, and while he's slightly off the mark this time," Relena's smile never wavered. "I could use a person like you in my staff."

"Do I get to think a while before making a decision?" Sally reached out to see the rain had ended for the present. "This has to be the most bizarre job interview I've ever had."

"Indeed." Relena closed her umbrella as well. "While I wait for your answer, would you like to have dinner with me?"

Sally didn't have a plan. She didn't know if what she felt was panic or anticipation, but that decision could wait for later too. Love would arrive in the unnecessary things.

"Dinner," Sally agreed. "Let's see where it takes us."


End file.
